366 TALKS ON " AT THE FEET OF THE MASTER "
not do so by eccentricity. Remember that the
ordinary work should be better done, not worse. We
spoke sometime ago, you remember, about the work
of writing a letter. I mentioned then that he who
had not time to write his letters clearly was saving
himself a minute or two at the cost of many minutes
of the time of the unfortunate person who had to
read it. Now there is a case where the man will do
the ordinary work better because he has become a
pupil. He learns not to think of saving his own
time but of the person at the other end; therefore
he does that very ordinary task better than a man
who is not a pupil and who has not thus the same
incentive to remember others as well as himself. So
all the small ordinary things you must do better than
others.
You remember how in his youth, Prince Siddartha,
who afterwards became the Buddha, devoted Him-
.self almost entirely to the higher things, to study and
meditation, and took very little thought about such
outer things as games and exercises. But when it
came to the time of His marriage with Yasodhara it
was necessary, according to the custom of the time,
that He should come forth and take part in all these
things, that He should prove Himself to be as good as
others at riding and running and shooting and feats
of strength; and His friends feared for Him because
He had not had practice in such things. But He
laughed lightly and said : t( I shall not lose my love